A Beginner's Guide to Graphic Adventure Games

Perhaps you're interested in computer games, but find you don't
have the reflexes that action-oriented games demand. Perhaps you enjoy
solving puzzles and figuring out stories from disparate clues, the
kind of person who really gets into mysteries. Perhaps you'd like to
explore distant planets, or struggle against an ancient evil, or just
participate in a great story.

If so, graphic adventure games may be for you.

Unfortunately, you've got a bit of a learning curve to master
before you can understand what's going on in this genre of computer
games. Terms like "Myst-alike" and "third person game" are thrown
about with abandon. In this article I'm going to lead you through some
of the thicket of history that surrounds adventure games.

A Brief History

In the beginning were text adventures. They told a story through
text. The program would describe a situation, you'd type in your
response, and the program would then tell you the results of your
command.

As computers got more powerful and their graphic capabilities
matured, graphic adventure games began to appear. The earliest ones
merely added still pictures to text, showing you a room as well as
describing it.

Then came Sierra On-Line's King's Quest. You still typed in
commands, but it showed you locations instead of describing
them through text. You maneuvered Graham around and about the kingdom
of Daventry, solving puzzles and advancing the story.

Sierra had a near death-grip on this style of graphic adventure
game throughout the mid-1980's. Newly-formed Lucasfilm Games, later
renamed LucasArts, eventually began creating similar graphic adventure
games.

The next big shift came in 1993, when Cyan released
Myst. Instead of having you move a character around on-screen,
Myst let you see the game world through the eyes of your
character. It was a fundamentally different approach to graphic
adventure games, one which changed the genre for good or ill.

The most recent trend has been the blending of other genres with
adventure games. Action/adventure games, role-playing adventure games,
role-playing adventure games with action, all have made their
appearance in recent years.